Today, the D.C. Council will have the final vote on a bill to push back a proposed Attorney General election until 2018, despite the wishes of the voters and, well, almost everyone else. But former D.C. Council At-Large candidate Paul Zukerberg won’t stand for that. That’s why he’s suing the District of Columbia Board of Elections and the D.C. Council to secure the rights of D.C. voters to elect an Attorney General in 2018.
Zukerberg’s lawsuit claims that voters “had grown tired of political corruption, bribery, theft, campaign fraud, and bad government, and through the initiative process, determined that they wished to have an elected Attorney General, whose decisions could be judged at the ballot box, and whose voice would be independent of the Mayor and Council.” In an 8-5 vote this July, the D.C. Council voted to overturn the Elected Attorney General Charter amendment.
Among other things, Zukerberg’s complaint says that “the uncertainty surrounding the Attorney General election has a chilling effect on the democratic process, has dissuaded qualified citizens from seeking that office, has chilled political speech, and deprived voters of their rights, as secured by the Constitution, established law, and their own Charter.”
Despite D.C. voters’ overwhelming desire for an elected Attorney General, many Council members don’t think the District is ready yet. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) introduced a bill that calls for a four-year delay, and told the Post in July that “we are just not ready for this.”
Of course, other members of the D.C. Council weren’t exactly cool with that, including Chairman Phil Mendelson, who called Evan’s bill “an embarrassment.” Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, believes that it’s not in the best interest for D.C. to push the election back to 2018. In an email to DCist, Wells says that “voters went to the polls and overwhelming chose to elect an independent Attorney General in 2014. Instead of listening to the clear will of D.C. residents, this Council is working to protect the status quo.”
